AMSTERDAM, Netherlands—Another new study reveals how debt can cause health problems.
Researchers evaluated Baby Boomers as they aged, starting from 28-to-40 and then followed up with them again at 50 years old. They separated the group into the levels of unsecured debt—credit cards and payday loans. The results, published by Elsevier and Science Direct, found a “significantly higher rate of physical pain among those with high unsecured debt, when compared to those without debt.”
The researchers said they evaluated 7,850 people within the Baby Boomer age group who responded to the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth, finding the reported debt levels for those from 28-40 at the time. They then evaluated the same group based on the amount of reported pain they felt from work or in general at age 50 through the study, discovering that those with consistently high debt had a 76% greater chance to report pain in their daily life when compared with those without debt, Forbes reported.
Pain Persists
The pain presented even in cases where the high debt group had taken steps to reduce the debt levels, with a reported 50% higher likelihood of feeling pain in the cohort, Forbes reported.
“Both debt and chronic pain can accumulate over time, so this cycle is hard to reverse once it starts,” said Adrianne Frech, an associate professor at the University of Missouri and a co-author of the report.
As CUToday.info recently reported here, a separate study has also found a link between debt and mental health.